Refinish kitchen cabinet doors, but they're unsandable...

[threedee]

So, moved into my "new" house, kitchen cabinet doors are, well, oof...
That thermo formed covering is peeling off, some places previous owners tried to reglue etc etc.
I jump onto youtube to look at howto's on refinishing doors. What i find is - "rip off old thermoform, sand, paint".
Well, it so happens that i do a LOT of sanding at work. Bring one door in, sand for 5 seconds - the 150grit is full of plasticky/gooey stuff.
So, grab an 80 - same. Mind, thats MDF door and no grit can cut through top layer without getting clogged right away.
It mostly looks ok, no dirt, some grease (i'd assume) in places where plastic came off.

It is impossible to sand out. Paper lasts only seconds. No cleaners or solvents will do anything (if anything its making it worse).
I am about to bin them all. Not keen on replacing just doors (might as well replace whole damn kitchen). Carcass is still good, but doors need either refinished or replaced.

Any ideas on this ?

 

[JohnD]

You mean, after you have peeled off the vinyl wrap?

 

[HERTS P&D]

See below:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07SB1L4ZH?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

Andy

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Yea the OP's doors are a whole different league for wrapping compared to those.

 

[threedee]

Yep, its thick plastic, i suspect pvc based, about half a mil thick, definitely not your traditional vinyl. I have no clue of the process of making this covering, but i assume the adhesive seeped into mdf making it wholly unsandable. Also its definitely not contact adhesive for laminating, we use a lot of spray web contact glue to laminate formica onto ply and mdf.

Now i wonder if i could thick primer spray and then try sanding it flat for spraying. Not sure primer would stick to it tho.

I'd also want to know how the door decoration in the middle was machined. I am a wood cnc machinist (sheet goods cutting/routing/boring), but i never needed to do something of this kind. I assume the groove inside might have been cut with some sort of horizontally rotating molding bit on a swivel head (which my machine doesnt have), as i dont see how that wide of a vertical cut with molding cutter would be so narrow. I see at least two operations on that inner cut. Just curious.

 

[opps]

You could try solvents such as cellulose/meths/etc

Edit.... sorry, you mentioned that you had tried that.

 

[JohnD]

I suppose you could try aluminium wood primer, which is good for sealing difficult and resinous wood.

 

[JohnD]

Incidentally, you can get doors from various merchants, including discontinued lines, sometimes very cheaply.

The trick is finding all the sizes you need.

Some vendors advertise on ebay, there is a surplus stock merchant near where I live now, and I formerly used one in East London.

My last kitchen doors were the entire end-of-line stock from a warehouse in Kilmarnock

 

[foxhole]

ESP , easy surface primer , cleans and primes with a wipe . Maybe suitable .